Aerial Hoop

A small, suspended metal hoop that the aerialist moves through/over/under around. Always there are people who buck the trend (and always they are the most interesting), but most hoop performance is relatively staid – the restrictive space of the circle (which in diameter is about or a little less than the length of the aerialist's straight leg) is used mostly as an excuse for routines where flexible posing is the foremost aim. As with silks, there's a heavy majority of female practitioners.

Magazine

The programme for Migrations has as its centrefold a timeline of the history of diaspora, starting with the Phoenicians in Lebanon (c. -3000 BC), tracking the movements of the Huns, the Magyars and the imperialist British, and ending in 2007 with the arrival at Circus Space of the recently graduated degree students who are onstage tonight.

Ilona Jäntti is a tremendous aerialist. She’s been in circus a long time and has the consequent deep well of physical resources, but it’s style, really, that sets her apart: graceful but not too-clean, having an all-body approach where elbows, teeth, anything can be used to keep her in the air.

Sideshow is a magazine and website that promotes, records and thinks about contemporary circus.

Sideshow's current major projects include Deconstructing Circus, a series of 30 focused interviews with 30 circus artists and directors, and What is Contemporary Circus?, a five-part entry level introduction to the artform.